Cindy Garcia of the UC Davis Meat Lab

Killer Instincts

Butchery is finding a passionate female following

On a warm afternoon, soft spring winds are blowing across the campus at UC Davis. In a building on the university’s west corner, Cindy Garcia is hosing pools of blood down a drain. She places a pig skull on an inspection table, washes her hands and steps into the sunlight just as the parking lot is beginning to fill with shoppers toting grocery bags.

May 31, 2014 Michelle Locke
Wise Villa Winery

Wine Winner

How Dr. Grover Lee went from the pharmacy to the vineyard

Imagine you’re a successful businessman, but what you really want to be is a professional baseball player. You’re so sure of yourself that you begin spending nights and weekends studying and training as if Major League Baseball will soon be calling. And then they actually do, and at your first at-bat,  you clear the bases.

That’s pretty much how things happened when Granite Bay pharmacist Dr. Grover Lee decided to become an award-winning winemaker.

May 31, 2014 Michelle Locke
www.istockphoto.com

World Travel

Can Sacramento cash in on an influx of Chinese tourism dollars?

Two hundred million Chinese tourists will pack their bags and depart their homeland in 2020, bound for destinations across the globe. It’s not a mass exodus; they’re not  fleeing their government. They’re tourists, and, according to CNN, they might be the greatest phenomenon to hit the  global travel industry since the invention of commercial flight.

May 31, 2014 Jeff Wilser
The Fremont Mews was developed in 2004 by the Capitol Area Development Authority on one of the last major undeveloped housing sites in Sacramento’s urban core. 

Photo by Courtesy of CADA

The Plight of CADA

Where goes the neighborhood?

Three years ago, Gov. Jerry Brown pulled the plug on local government redevelopment agencies and the estimated $5 billion a year they spend rebuilding inner cities to combat urban blight.

May 31, 2014 Bill Sessa
www.shutterstock.com

Kickstarter

Placer County hopes to win tourism dollars with new sports complexes

The rise of elite youth sports and the popularity of year-round athletics have created an emerging market for participant and spectator spending in south Placer County, which has positioned itself as a major sports destination. Now, two separate entities are looking to capitalize on the region’s sports market with large-scale venues that could turn a profit in as few as three years. 

May 1, 2014 Laurie Lauletta-Boshart
www.istockphoto.com

The Quick Quit

Employee retention hinges on a smooth onboarding process

Have you ever arrived at work and realized you don’t remember driving there? It’s kind of a weird feeling, but your consciousness was somewhere else while your subconscious did all the work of traveling, turning, merging and parking. You can do this because your commute is so ingrained that it doesn’t involve any real decision-making. 

Apr 30, 2014 Suzanne Lucas

The Wine on Miracle Mile

Sacramento sommelier Paul Marsh joins Stockton’s business renaissance

For the past 10 years, Paul Marsh has pledged himself to the pursuit of wine. In Chico, he learned the intricacies of its fruit by planting and harvesting a vineyard. With Kendall Jackson, he learned to sell. At The Firehouse Restaurant in Old Sacramento, he was educated on the finer points of building a wine collection in a hospitality setting, and he became a certified sommelier.

Apr 30, 2014 Douglas Curley